diy digital menu board

How many times have you experienced this— you walk past a quick-serve restaurant, you notice the outdoor digital menu board displaying the mouthwatering images of a burger or sushi…and now, all of a sudden, you feel HUNGRY!

And, that is precisely why your restaurant desperately needs a digital menu board, if it already hasn’t got one. Both indoor and outdoor digital menu boards act as visual magnets to draw customers towards the counter and increase sales.

Therefore, irrespective of whether you are a five-star hotel or a local cafe/QSR, it is essential for you to think through the outlook and design of your restaurant digital menu boards.

Well, creating a digital menu board for a restaurant doesn’t have to be expensive or even priced at all. There are many design software that allow you to download as well as edit free digital menu board templates.

In this blog, we will tell you how to create digital menu boards for restaurants using both free and paid software. We have listed the six online menu makers that can help you create stunning and professional-looking digital menu boards for your QSR, food truck, restaurant, hotel, or school cafeteria.

Before choosing the design application, make sure that you know what file formats are supported by your digital menu board software. For example, Pickcel’s software for digital menu board supports all kinds of images, video formats, and URLs.

Pickcel has the perfect software for digital menu boards that will take care of all your creative necessities. This digital restaurant menu app can be a fabulous asset, particularly for those eateries that need to update their menu boards quite frequently, and for whom time is of the essence. This commonly includes food services like restaurants, cafes, QSRs, hotel restaurants, office canteens, drive thru stalls, etc.

Clean and organized menu design, fancy but readable texts, and a whole lot of breathable space to avoid confusing or overwhelming the customers. Believe it or not, creating such clever designs on your own is not really as simple as it may look.

But, that is the advantage of using ready-made templates of the Pickcel digital menu board app: They are designed by professionals and you can simply select a digital menu template and edit it to the very last detail like:

Exclusive for digital menu boards: As you scroll down through this list, you will see that there is hardly any software that is so fine-tuned to the requisites of the food service industry. When you use a dedicated software, the chances of your objective getting fulfilled (in this case, your menu board being an instrument of temptation so that your customers can’t avoid buying from you) increases strikingly.

You can do so much more than just design digital menus: We are not bragging, but the Pickcel digital menu board app surely emerges as a winner if you consider the additional benefits you get. This is a software that not only allows you to create excellent, professional digital menu designs, but also happens to be a complete package of your restaurant’s digital signage management.

The app offers one single platform from which users can create digital menus and publish them directly to the restaurant’s digital menu boards. Besides digital menu boards, restaurant digital signage can also be used for various other purposes like showing promotional contents, live news, weather updates, social media feeds, order status, and so on.

Within the Pickcel menu board app, users can pick and choose from a range of alternatives and then mix and match them to create a design of their choice. This takes far less time than filling up a completely blank space.

Pickcel software subscription required: If you are looking only for free digital menu design software, then this can come as a little anticlimactic. Pickcel’s digital menu board app comes free with the Pickcel digital signage software. In fact, an amazing collection of Pickcel apps comes free with the software. But, the digital signage software license itself is not free.

However, there is an upside to using licensed software. Most free softwares have limitations; they may be suitable for passion projects, but fail to meet business expectations. Proprietary products are secure; they come with rich features, UI, and tech support. Pickcel is a reputed digital signage company that caters to some of the biggest enterprises.

Pickcel offers the software license on a monthly and yearly subscription rate and the plan can be cancelled at any time. Moreover, there is a 14-day free trial period for which users can avail all the features of Pickcel digital signage software including the digital menu board app, completely free of cost.

DSMenu is a company that offers tons of customizable templates for different types of restaurant digital menu boards. These services do the creative heavy lifting for you by designing professional templates that meet the industry benchmark.

It saves time: Hotels, restaurants, and cafes need to update their menu boards frequently, often more than thrice a day to display different meals. On top of that, there are special meals, festive offers, regular discounts, coupon codes, and many other changes that require constant updates. Therefore, unless you have hired a creative team to regularly design and update your restaurant menu board, it is always reasonable to go for a ready-made template instead of designing one from scratch.

Exclusive for digital menu boards: DS Menu templates are tailor-made for food businesses only. This means that you will get huge collections of industry-standard designs. Moreover, the templates are well-organized under popular categories like ‘Lunch’, ‘Breakfast’, ‘School Menu’, ‘Happy Hour’, ‘Bakery’, ‘Chalk’ etc. You can also request custom designs.

Not Free: DS menu allows you to register and design your menu for free so that you can warm up to the application. However, in order to download your design, you need to be a paid subscriber.

If you are searching for hundreds of free templates, hands down, Canva is the ultimate option to try. It is, in fact, a one-stop solution for all kinds of creative templates, not just digital menu board templates. Even though all templates are not cost-free, it is safe to say that you’ll get plenty of unpaid designs to choose from. You can hover over each template/photo/video/element to check which ones are tagged ‘free’.

In Canva, you can also design your restaurant digital menu boards from scratch, import graphics from your personal devices, share your designs and work as a team.

It allows video formats: You can add free stock videos to digital menu board design. You can also download them in GIF or MP4 formats besides SVG, PNG, JPEG, and PDF file formats. Adding dynamic graphics (like GIFs and videos) can make the digital menu boards for restaurants 10X more attractive. Simply create a high-quality video of some great food being prepared in your restaurant kitchen, import it to Canva, and insert that video clip in your digital menu design! Isn’t that fun?

Let"s add another great news: Pickcel users can now design and manage their digital menu boards directly through our integrated Canva design tool. Check out our step-by-step tutorial with images for more insight.

Mostly Vertical Menus: Sorry, we couldn’t find any such downside for this tool. If at all something has to be pointed out, then we can only say that most of the digital menu board templates are in portrait orientation. But then, you can always resize! The standard landscape aspect ratio is 16:9.

Easil is another user-friendly graphic design software where you can create beautiful content for your restaurant digital menu boards. It offers three tiers of pricing plans. The ‘Basic’ plan is free and is packed with useful features.

The digital menu board template designs are surely a breath of fresh air, especially if you have a weakness for pastel shades and minimalist designs! If you need horizontal menus, you may be a little disappointed at first glance, as Easil mostly offers vertical menu board templates.

But, don’t worry, we’ll let you in on a secret that will solve your problem: all you have to do is copy and resize the vertical template into the ‘Digital Screen’ (1920px X 1080 px) size. It’s that simple!

Custom dimension for digital screens: Digital menu boards for restaurants are generally large digital signage screens. For a layman, understanding the technical nitty-gritty of graphic design like size, resolution, and aspect ratios can be a genuine struggle. At the same time, not having the correct understanding of these dimensions can lead you to create a design that will ultimately appear blurry or pixelated on your digital signage displays. Easil completely obsoletes this hassle by providing a standard ‘digital screen’ dimensions.

Apple Keynote is another presentation tool that can be used to design beautiful dynamic and static digital menu boards for your restaurant/QSR. You will get plenty of gorgeous templates, to begin with. Apple Keynote comes pre-installed with Apple devices and can also be downloaded for free from the Mac App Store.

Tip: if you are a hip and urban restaurant/QSR with plenty of millennial customers, you can use this feature to give your digital menu board a cool and funky organic look!

The time factor: With more features, you need more time to figure them out. Besides, with Apple, you might be surprised at the number of new features getting introduced every now and then! So, for creating a digital menu board in Keynote, you might need to sit down with a cup of coffee, watch some tutorials before you can create a ‘wow’ design for the digital menu board. All we are saying is, we hope you are not in a hurry.

If you want to design your restaurant digital menu board right from scratch, then Google Slides can be your favorite application. It allows a much greater scope of collaboration. You can share your slides with others and can group edit your digital menu board designs in real-time.

Also, you can import any existing designs in PowerPoint and convert them into Google slides. If you want to get started with templates, that is also available. However, do not expect to find the kind of huge repository of templates that you get with applications like Canva or DS menu, or Easil.

Free: There is no subscription fee at all. Everything is free up to a limit. Supports screencast: Digital menu board designs made with Google Slides can be wirelessly cast on your digital displays directly from your android devices like smartphone, tablet, smartwatch, etc. using Chromecast, Hangouts, and AirPlay. You can get the tutorials here.

Before creating your digital menu board with PowerPoint, do make sure to resize the slides in the standard 16:9 ratio if you plan to show your menu on widescreen. The default aspect ratio of a PPT slide is 4:3. You can change the aspect ratio of your slides from the ‘Page Set-up’ option under the ‘Design’ tab of the toolbar.

Intelligent Design Suggestions: The new Microsoft PowerPoint version offers smart design suggestions based on the design of your first slide (as shown in the image above). You can find these suggestions under the ‘Designer’ tab. Some designs are free while others are only for ‘Premium’ members. Nevertheless, you can get a fair number of new digital menu board design ideas from this section.

A Little Time-Consuming: Same as with Google Slides; you will not get any such pre-baked designs for your restaurant digital menu board. Therefore, it is not a very time-efficient choice.

Once you have learned how to create a digital menu board for your restaurant or QSR outlet, it is time for you to move on to the next level: how to create a digital menu board that sells your products and communicates with your customers at the same time.

Add relevant images: Nothing cries ‘amateur’ more than an erratic and unrelated image/graphic in your digital menu board design. Imagine the disappointment of the customers when they walk into your restaurant hoping to get that delicious burrito displayed on your digital menu board but realize that it was just a decorative image and that you don’t actually sell one! You wouldn’t want to set a wrong impression, do you?

Less is More: While designing digital menu boards for restaurants, make sure that you do not crowd it with lots of graphics, font styles, and effects. Your customers will feel lost if you do that, and it might also make your menu look desperate for attention. Keeping it simple always works well enough.

Set Yourself Apart: Do a little homework on how your competitors design their digital menu boards? And, what can you do to make your’s a little different from the rest? If your competitors are using colorful images, then maybe you can go for the cool ‘chalkboard’ look. If others are using images, then you can add GIF or video elements to make your digital menu board even more dynamic.

Add Interactivity to Your Restaurant Digital Menu Board: When it comes to customer experience, nothing can beat the fun of interacting with gadgets & gizmos. That is why you need interactive digital menu boards for your restaurant . But the question is how.

However, on the upside, Pickcel provides affordable solutions like digital menu board solution and digital discount coupon that offer massive scope for digital interactivity along with an incredible range of advanced features that the DIY menu boards fail to match.

Check out: Pickcel"s Software for Digital Menu Boards! The software offers a consolidated platform to design, publish and manage your restaurant digital menu boards from anywhere, with any device!

The bottom line is, creating digital signage for restaurants, QSRs, cafes, or hotels does not have to be an ordeal. It doesn’t have to be expensive either. You don’t even need to hire a designer for the job. In today’s world of automation, designing your digital menu board can be an absolute breeze.

Restaurants, bars, and other businesses everywhere are quickly replacing their printed menu displays with new digital menu software. In addition to the flexibility and general strikingness, a digital menu pays for itself, especially if you change your menus often. You can also add social displays to your mix to increase sales!

I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners, ranging from restaurants to hotels, who have switched over to digital menus for better functionality and designs. Creating one is actually quite simple, and you can do it in less than an hour. By creating your re-usable menu template, you can conveniently experiment with different menu items, prices, and aesthetics for your customers. Put simply, a digital menu = more sales.

A vector illustration application. I use Adobe Illustrator (free trial available), but you can also use free or cheaper alternatives such as Inkscape, or even Powerpoint or Google Slides for simple menus.

To show your menu, you will need a digital display with digital signage software, such as Enplug. Check out our guide for installing a digital menu here.

Now that we have a project to work with, we’ll set up our grid. This will allow us to easily build our menu items and keep everything aligned nicely. Note: Keep in mind if you’re using alternative software, your grid options will be different.

Now that we have a nice project and workspace ready, we can start building the menu. For my menu, I’m going to create a drink list for my brewery. I’ll start by creating a background color that matches my brand.

I’d like to add an image of a brewery to improve the look and feel of my menu. It will be partially transparent so it’s barely visible, but the little details make a big difference. Go to File > Place to add an image to our menu:

The font you use on your menu is important! I’m using Lato, a free open source font. If you’re looking for fonts, Google Fonts has hundreds you can use for free.

Tip: Make sure to leave some ‘breathing room’ between the edge of your menu and your actual menu items. This is also known as ‘negative space’, and is often easy to overlook. Without negative space, everything feels too big and ends up looking messy.

I’m going to create a divider to split my menu into halves, giving me more space. I’ll use the ‘line’ tool on the left toolbar, with a 1px white line.

Tip: To make sure the line is exactly in the middle of your menu, select it and press ‘Transform’ at the top. In the ‘x’ box, enter ‘1920/2’ (the total width divided by 2)

Now that we have our structure, we can add the menu item text. It’s important that our text has hierarchy (the most important text should be biggest/boldest, and less important text should be smallest/thinnest).

Our menu is ready to use! All we have to do is export it from Illustrator and upload it to our displays. In Illustrator, go to File > Save for Web. Double check JPEG High is selected (this is usually the best option for size/appearance) and click ‘save’.

Hundreds of businesses around the world use Enplug software to power their digital displays, connecting with customers and increasing sales. To learn more how Enplug can work for you, and to request a demo, click here.

Most modern television sets feature the ability to play images and videos from a USB flash drive (also known as jump-drive or thumb-drive). Simply plug a jump-drive of your content into the USB port of your TV to showcase your menu, photos, or even videos. Some TVs even allow your content to play on loop – an easy way to share a slideshow of content.

You don’t need a fully functional USB port as long as your TV has an HDMI port. When plugged into your HDMI port the ‘Micca Speck 1080p Full-HD Ultra Portable Digital Media Player’ gives you a USB and more. If you’ve got an extra TV kicking around, I highly recommend this little device. Why? Because in 2020 I helped a customer set up 3 of these on used TVs – and it worked flawlessly. The Micca Speck is a cheap, powerful media player that can display multiple images and video formats in full 1080p HD. The player comes with a remote control and connects to your TV via HDMI cable. This device includes some noteworthy features such as an SD/SDHC memory card reader, USB port, automatic restart after a power failure, aluminum case exterior, and high-quality playback.

So, now you’re excited about creating a digital menu board or point of sale display… What do you need? 1) Any TV with an HDMI port. 2) The Micca Speck Digital Media Player. 3) A USB thumb drive loaded with the images/video you want to share.

Microsoft PowerPoint slides can be set to a default size of “1080p” or 1920×1080 (the same aspect ratio as most modern TV displays). Often 1920×1080 is already the default PowerPoint template size, if not you can change it.* Once you’ve created your menu simply “export” the slide as a jpeg image and copy it to your jump drive. Because the image is exported as 1920×1080 pixels your menu should display on your TV exactly how it appeared in PowerPoint.

Of course, you can use any application you’re comfortable with to create your digital menu artwork. And there are many more methods, services, and devices you could utilize to display your electronic signage… this one just happens to follow one of my favorite business strategies – highly effective and inexpensive.

If you’re already having your menus designed and printed by an outside company, a tv-ready digital version of your menu could be just a conversation away.

Digital menu boards are key to any retail or service business — be it a bar, restaurant, retail shop or cafeteria.You can easily create andeditdigital menu boards for your TVswith a slideshow app like Microsoft PowerPoint.

That"s why you need a digital menu board that"s easy to design and edit. Digital menu boards and signage systems boost revenue and improve the customer experience. It"s the best way to quickly communicate your products, services and prices to customers at the point of purchase.Unfortunately, most digital menu boards are clunky, expensive and difficult to use.

That’s why we created this comprehensive guideto creating and editing digital menu boards: If you can make a slideshow, you can make a menu board. It’s that simple. This guide shows you how to configure a familiar tool like Microsoft PowerPoint for digital menu boards and easily turn slides intomenusignage that makes people pay attention andtake action.You will be able to create and edit menu items, pricing and designs.

You can make menus from slideshow templates. Or you can use a digital signage solution that has menu board templates already built in. With Ditto digital signage, you can create and display menus in minutes.

Creating and designing content for digital menu boards doesn’t have to be difficult. Start with built-in PowerPoint templates if you need design inspiration. Keep things simple, legible and relevant, like this digital menu board:

Ensure the file format you choose is compatible with your digital signage solution. Most digital signage content management systems (CMS) will accept common image and video files. For example, Ditto digital signage is compatible with a variety of media file types, such as PNG, JPEG, GIF and MP4.

Now that you have exported your slides, it’s time to get them up on your screens. Some digital signage solutions only play files from a physical source like a USB drive. However, the best type of digital signage includes a CMS that is touch-free and accessible from anywhere.

Organize your content and set scheduling and duration parameters. To do this you’ll need to upload the files to your preferred signage solution or deploy physical hard drives loaded with your content to each display. The digital signage solution you use can make this process really simple or really time-consuming — opt for a centrally managed signage solution that has a built-in CMS, like Ditto.

Make a digital menu board and you’ll revolutionize your restaurant. Customers appreciate the visual fare you show them that tantalizes those taste buds. Most importantly, cross-selling and up-selling become practically automatic. Eliminating paper flyers and posters means you go green without any hassles or disadvantages to your promo strategy. Basically, a digital menu board provides the kind of benefits you can’t do without. And we’ll show you how to do it.

If your food gets customers planning their next reservation and posting pics of your chocolate mousse, then you’re off to a great start. You already have the basic ingredients for success: inspired dishes, great taste, attractive presentation. Now you’ve got to reel in the customers. A digital menu board simply puts your culinary talents in the spotlight and makes that sale easier.

By harnessing the power of visual persuasion. In fact, there’s nothing more persuasive to customers than seeing pictures and videos of your food looking so good they can practically smell that marinara and taste your top-secret spice mix. Just picture the kind of drool-worthy playlist of daily specials you can create. They’ll order a four-course meal in no time, guaranteed. After all, seeing is undoubtedly believing. Faded paper menus that rely on a written description of your best dishes just can’t do your food justice. And they definitely don’t offer the many benefits that come with creating a digital menu board. So what are these much-touted benefits?

Lots of business gurus talk about efficiency in abstract terms. A digital menu board certainly offers you increased efficiency in very concrete, very practical terms. And here’s how:

Forget about reprinting menus and promo materials every time Halloween rolls around. No more hastily scribbled sandwich boards whenever the farmers’ market gives you last-minute inspiration. Got some juicy, freshly picked cherries that called to you? Instead, all you have to do is upload a pic (or video) of your pie to the digital menu board. Instantly updating menu items or editing prices for happy hour shaves hours of busywork off your daily schedule. Additionally, all that time you save means your servers can focus on your customers instead of boring admin duties.

Instead of running around switching out the paper menus and promo boards between breakfast, lunch and dinner, schedule your menu boards. What does this mean specifically? You can create a different digital menu board for each time of day. With a digital signage scheduling feature, the transition between one menu and the next happens automatically. You specify the exact time and of course you can make last minute changes in real-time.

Most importantly, if you have certain crowds coming at certain hours of the day, you can tailor your menu boards. Schedule a digital menu board that showcases healthy food choices for the early birds. On the other hand, you want to entice the after-school crowd with fries and burgers. Scheduling digital menu boards makes your signage screens work optimally. Your customers love to see their favorite foods. And your bottom line will love the extra sales.

Do you manage many different branches of your fast-food chain or restaurant? Or perhaps you prefer designing your digital menu board at home after closing? With a digital menu board you can manage everything centrally. From uploading new pics to a screen layout template or changing the price-list at one specific location, you can do it all no matter how far from the actual screen you are. Wouldn’t you love to spend more time thinking up new recipes instead of racing from one location to the other? It also means you have total control over the look and content of the menu boards. Make any change you want and with the push of a button it’ll appear on screen instantly.

Sounds a bit far-fetched that one screen can help bolster your financials significantly? However, countless business owners have raked in extra money by switching to a digital menu board. And the reasons are simple.

You know what dishes to pair or promote to create an unforgettable dining experience. And that’s not a concept just for exclusive establishments. Local diners, bakeries and fast food joints also know what makes their customers happy. So show it to them using a digital menu board.

Display a video of your daily special and follow it up with a photo of a side dish that’s on sale. Let customers know that they can super-size their favorite drink. Got a brand new milkshake flavor you want to promote? Keep it up on screen to entice buyers. If customers see what else you’ve got on the menu, they get more tempted to add extra dishes to their order. Getting a visual of a steaming hot cup of cocoa or a freshly-grilled sandwich is just too much for anyone to resist. And there you go. You’re up-selling and cross-selling without actually putting in any extra time or effort.

Do away with printed menus and promo flyers and you do away with all that extra cost. And it does add up over the years. Go digital and you can make as many menu updates and price changes as you want, in seconds. Additionally, a digital menu board gives you a more appealing, more polished and more attention-grabbing way of promoting your menu items. Your accountant will also approve of the additional savings despite the initial cost of investment. What’s not to like?

Scheduling menu boards definitely saves your staff a ton of time. But it also ups your sales, too. Schedule a digital menu board that promotes great lunch options for when the office crowd goes on break. Sandwiches, muffins and salads will sell better than family-sized pizzas and steak dinners. A digital menu board makes it easy to get those targeted sales. If people see what they want, they’re more likely to wait in line to get it.

Make a digital menu board and you’ll make that time spent in line go by in a flash. Seeing your menu in action, on screen, with photos and videos, makes it easy to forget about waiting times. Not only will customers stay busy picking out what they want to order, but they’ll also get a feel for what your place is all about. Because the fonts, colors and branding that goes into your menu board? That’s your message, and through that they’ll get to know you.

A digital menu board also means you can include other types of content. You can advertise the church charity fundraiser, or the upcoming school play. Sometimes it’s about more than selling. Sometimes it’s about being a part of the community. Let your menu board show that. Your customers will unquestionably love you all the more for it.

Absolutely! Whether you run a small diner or the hottest lunch spot in town, you get the same benefits. Cafés, bakeries, school cafeterias and takeout joints will also see the business perks to setting up a digital menu board. Own a catering company? Do you meet with potential customers at your establishment? Great! Use the power of images and videos to pitch your delicious specialties. All in all, if you serve food and have customers on-site, digital menu boards are a must-have for you.

Undeniably, you might be concerned about the initial cost. Don’t be. You can undoubtedly find an impressive but cost-effective TV. And user-friendly, affordable signage software like Yodeck makes creating content a breeze, no matter your tech skills. You’ll certainly recoup your investment soon with menu boards for restaurants.

In the top left corner you’ll see an orange circle with a pencil in it. Click on that and you can add text and other graphics in order to type in the name of your menu item, the price and any other information you want.

A zone settings menu appears to the right. Scroll down and you can customize each element in the layout template zone. You can also change the font, text size and color, and if you scroll down you can replace that image, video or playlist with one of your own. You can even add your own logo. If you want to change the text, including the Menu Item placeholder text and price list, just click on the text you want to change and type your changes in the template.

Use a digital menu board in your restaurant, bar or café and your staff and customers will see a huge difference. And it’s all about that all-important, all-engaging visual attraction you’ll get with images and videos. Your menus come to life, you can edit and change prices and offerings no matter where you are, in real time. Up-selling and cross-selling also become second nature. Waiting in line turns into an opportunity to see what’s on offer. Bottom line, using a digital menu board helps you save money and increase profits so that you can spend more on what really matters: top-quality ingredients, excellent staff and satisfied customers.

These menu displays are a visually attractive way to showcase products, offers and menu items really simply. And with an effective digital menu board software, you can also show reviews, live social media feeds and even broadcast what’s going on in the kitchen.

The ‘easy win’ for a digital menu board is to show your customers what to expect, from the menu itself to any special offers. As 90%of the information that is transmitted to the brain is visual, using a digital menu board to advertise specials can be much more effective than your server. And, should these specials change last minute or you begin to run low, you can alter the information across all screens, in any location, in real-time, from anywhere.

Aside from showing your customers the menu, a digital board can also be used to improve queue management; it’s said that digital signage can reduce perceived wait times by more than 35%– handy when you’ve got a long queue of hungry customers.

The benefit of a fast food restaurant is just that: it’s fast. Which means you rely on rapid iteration to keep customer interest. McDonalds is one of the kings of ‘QSR’ (quick-service restaurants) in both their service, but also their digital menu board strategy. Their menu boards are constantly changing and also show timely content, like their breakfast menu highlighting their most popular meals for that time of day. As a franchise, it is up to the franchisee to make these decisions, so having the ability to change menu board content from one location across all screens is a game-changer.

As well as being able to change the content of a menu board quickly, you can also update or change imagery. You may have seasonal designs or need to add a side to one of your meal options. On a busy day, there might not be time to get the designer in.

Our Digital Menu Board app makes that really simple. Edit, copy and repeat menus, or create as many new ones as you like. You can even schedule when to show this content; set the time and date you’d like seasonal or time-specific content to show and disappear without having to manually change it each time.

Digital menu boards can also tie into point of sale (POS) software to activate instant updates and alterations. When this is automated it makes your staff’s job much easier.

Smaller and portable digital displays such as iPads and tablets served at the point of purchase can also upsell based on buyer behavior. Showing information such as, “go large for just $2 extra” or even “have you tried our new side salad?” can all be great incentives to upsell more products.

Digital signage displays can also be used to share allergy and calorie information to patrons. If a customer has a specific allergy they can view the allergy information without holding up the queue.

Digital signage knocks down a few of those hurdles in one. Firstly, it makes the ordering process quicker and gives information to customers as soon as they walk in, from digital menus positioned anywhere in the store.

Lastly, digital signage doesn’t just have to share digital menu boards and information on food. Using Playlists it’s easy to switch between a ton of different content sources: social media dashboards, train times, weather reports, live news, sports scores and images or videos can really enhance the customer experience.

Digital signage can also be used for wayfinding and to tell customers how many seats are still available in each area – when paired with a simple foot tracking or sensor system.

If you’ve been tasked with getting content onto a digital menu board, or you’d just like to know how to create a digital menu, we’ll take you through it below:

At ScreenCloud we"ve developed the Digital Menu Board app that allows you to create clean and easy digital menu boards for your products. The menu app is easy and quick to use: type in your products, add information (e.g. pricing) and the app will pull it into a  digital menu for you.

This saves the need for any design skills and lets you update your menus as often as you need without having to start from scratch. You can even customize the menu board with your brand colors and backgrounds.

If you"re designing from scratch, the best place to start when creating a digital menu board is Canvas. Whether you have a design team or not, digital menu board templates come in handy as they help you discover the spacing and format which works best on screen. It’s simply a case of uploading your images, then dragging and dropping different elements until you’re happy with the look.

When creating a menu board template, remember screen location; mostly, these screens will be viewed from a distance and need to be both visually appealing, but also simple enough to make split second decisions.

DSMenu allows you to create and manage a menu board directly from the cloud. With a ton of different menu board designs to choose from such as "grill", "fast food", "pizza", "burger", "beverages", "festivals", "snacks" and "offers" to name but a few! The DSMENU user guide takes you through how to get set up in a few easy steps.

Firstly, you pick your menu board template (up to 199 to choose from), or decide to start from scratch. The menu boards are fully customizable, allowing you to add your own menu items, change colors and upload images.

Once happy with your masterpiece you can download it as a PNG or JPEG file, or grab your unique URL. Load this into ScreenCloud and you"re ready to begin showing great digital menu boards on to your screens.

Once you’ve created all of this content, how do you get your digital menu up onto your screen? In a word: ScreenCloud. Our digital signage software allows you to upload content onto your screen display in seconds - as easily as you might upload an image to Facebook.

As you will see from most templates, grid systems work well in digital signage menu boards as they allow users to clearly separate out each item, making it easier for customers to digest the information on show. Once you have your grid or layout in place, the next step is to decide on a color scheme.

Use sans-serif fonts in large sizes so that viewers can read your message at-a-glance. Avoid multiple fonts, or fonts in bright, garish colors if you already have color throughout your design. This will ensure pricing can be read and menu items understood.

The purpose of a digital menu board is to entice customers to act. If they already know what they want, this is easy. But if they don’t, you should use your boards as a way to get them to ask.

One of the big faux pas in restaurant menu board design is using heavily filtered or stock images. If your images are of a generic burger or coffee cup, customers can’t connect with what you’re actually selling and you’re probably doing your great products an injustice. If you need imagery for your commercial menu boards, try to take your own. To get the best photos of your food and drinks as possible, photograph in natural daylight so you can avoid using the flash, as this can flatten your dishes and remove natural shadows.

Also think about the backdrop - a clean white plate and a patterned or lightly-coloured table cloth can do wonders for the look and feel of your meal. Lastly, think about your angles. Websites like Instagram and Pinterest are a great place to get inspiration for how to style and photograph your dishes. Some dishes or drinks look great photographed from above, whereas others might need a lower angle. If you have the budget, a food stylist could also help take professional images which would be perfect for your restaurant TV menus.

When you have a lot of food items it can be difficult to create a restaurant menu board without using up all of the space. But this can make your design feel crowded and noisy. The last thing you want to do is overwhelm patrons, so try to account for some breathing space. If need be, create two or three menus, where you can split courses and rotate menus, rather than cramming them all into one display. Use negative space around each list of menu items and your content will be much easier to read for customers.

Hint: Check out our digital signage design tips for more ideas on how to create screen-perfect content, or as a useful guide to send to your designer to help them determine the size and dimensions of your TV menu.

Our customer Mamuśka! were on a mission to implement digital signage that could show menu items with ease, in a system where non-techie staff could update content.

We’ve talked a lot about ensuring you know your digital signage audience. When Mamuśka! began to break down the different cohorts in their audience, they very quickly worked out which products to push and when.

Getting super targeted with content, rather than showing the same digital menu items again and again, is what takes a great digital menu board to a seriously effective digital menu board.

They hired a content creator who filmed the process of their smoked chickens being made. They used ScreenCloud to play the video on their digital signage screens. A month in and they’re selling out of chickens. They’ve even had to make a “sold out” sign for their hot counter.

This is not a drill. It is a really, really good example of what happens when you find a tangible way to measure the effect of your digital signage boards.

Why not take some of these ideas to create digital menu boards that help the person viewing them? From ways to save money, to upgrade “hacks” that will make their meal even tastier, this is a great way to grab attention and make your brand memorable.

This menu designed by Mark Unger for a new restaurant in Orlando is another example of a fun way to do fast food menu design. Using bright colors and a fun poem, the menu board becomes both memorable and instagrammable.

Want to know McDonald’s’ biggest issue with a digital menu board roll out? Communication between their headquarters and their team. In this article where McDonald’s shares its digital menu board lessons it details challenges that all rely on better communication between those dreaming up the digital menu boards and those actually deploying them.

That’s because the step from CEO or store owner, who usually has the idea for signage, is not far from the person whose job it is to manage it. We’ve seen everyone from chefs to store managers, to store assistants manage digital signage displays and do a great job of it!

If you are attempting to roll out a digital menu board system at scale, communication needs to be a core part. This also means giving all of your stores the tools they need to run their digital menu boards autonomously. For example, why not create one Google Slides digital menu template, but then let your in-store team manage what menu items go onto it?

Communication around what your digital menu boards should be showing and why, will contribute to greater success. Autonomy and allowing the people who know the store best to manage it, will also help.

7-Eleven convenience stores in Denmark saw sales of coffee rise by 30% when advertised on their digital signs. Prime Burger, a fast-food chain, increased sales by 50% like-for-like by replacing their static signs for digital ones.

Yet 74% of customers say an easy to read menu is their top priority. Here’s where you need to pair the two; digital menu boards have a huge effect on customer behavior but they have to be easily accessible.

It’s no good creating a digital menu board that no one can read because it’s too far away or the text is too small. Customers are naturally drawn to digital signs and it’s easy to play around with the content. Don’t let font size and layout be detriment to the effectiveness of your campaigns. Check, check and check again to ensure you have the optimal design setup.

Digital signage is one of the easiest ways to plan and adapt your restaurant to the internet of things (IoT) and plan for future campaigns where customers will be talking to objects and systems within your stores.

Digital signage ties in with beacons, which are able to communicate special offers, news and updates to a customer’s smartphone. They’re also adaptable and can be triggered by events in-store. Advertising panels can change depending on how many products a freezer has in stock (running low = shift the ads to a different product). Smart fridges and shelving can count stock, automate ordering processes and reduce food waste.

Setting up digital signage displays now, is the first step towards owning a sophisticated, internet-enabled restaurant that tailors its food, products and staff timetables to what the customer actually wants and needs, based on real data.

A digital menu board is an attractive way to show your restaurant menu, best-sellers, and promotional offers. In addition, your restaurant can also show your customer reviews, real-time social media feeds, and a live-look at your restaurant operations. That’s why so many restaurants are trying to answer one big question: how to make a digital menu board?

If you already want to know how to make a digital menu board, you have probably researched its benefits. Anyway, we will be discussing the benefits of digital menu boards below and why you should invest in one as soon as possible.

Say goodbye to printing menus. Restaurants usually have seasonal products that require printing a new menu every quarter. The costs of printing can pile up quickly. Using digital menu boards can help your restaurant save on printing costs because you don’t have to reprint your menu every time it’s updated.

A digital menu board makes it easier for the restaurant to update the menu when needed. Managers can easily add seasonal and promotional items, remove poor performing products, and test out different designs for the menu to see which ones drive more sales. In addition, if your restaurant decides to change menu prices, it can be done easily when you’re using a digital menu board.

Depending on the type of restaurant, menus may change during breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Using a digital menu board can help automate the transition between these times. You can preset at which times the content will change during the day. As a result, restaurants can focus on selling certain menu items during a certain time of the day and be able to optimize their inventory in a more effective way.

You might have heard of the phrase, a photo is worth a thousand words. This holds true especially for the restaurant industry. A catchy and mouth-watering photo of any food can equate to an order or an additional order for customers. This highlights the upselling capability of a digital menu board.

In short, instead of your cashier doing all the talking just to upsell a product, the digital menu board will help you do that. For example, your digital menu board shows a steak meal coupled with recommended add-ons such as a salad and a glass of wine. Customers seeing it might feel inclined to try the exact combination they saw in the photo.

A digital menu board can help show your promotions any time you have one. In addition to promotions, you can also show your new product items or an event you’re hosting soon. There are limitless possibilities to show your marketing message when you have a digital menu board. The best part is you can conduct A/B testing on these messages and see which ones generate the most engagement or return on investment.

A menu that’s displayed on computer or television screens are known as digital menu boards. It is one of the most optimal ways to inform customers of your menu, specials and promos. Digital menu boards are simple to update. There are software solutions out there that allow you to update menu boards in minutes.

To understand how to make a digital menu board, you should start with understanding the main components it includes. Let’s go through each of them one by one.

The software solution you’ll be using is a content management system. This software will allow you to design multiple templates and upload it to your digital menu boards.

Almost all software solutions are now cloud-based. This feature allows users to access it from any computer. As a result, restaurant managers can effectively utilize the software at any time from any place to operate the menu boards.

There’s only a handful of equipment that you can use for a digital menu board. The main piece of hardware that is in all digital menu boards is the advertising monitor. It allows your restaurant to display food photos and videos in order to attract customers. Other pieces of equipment used are accessories to help customers see the content better. Some examples include rotators for the television so it captures a wider angle.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the digital menu board. Without the content, both the software and hardware will be useless. The content that you’ll put in your digital menu board is the most important factor in determining if your digital menu campaign is successful.

If you’ve decided to shift from printed menus to digital menu boards, you need to know how much your investment will be. There are two types you can choose from – the DIY option or the commercial option. We do not recommend the DIY way – buy a local TV with a USB and put a picture file of your menu.

The better way is to use the commercial option where the restaurant will be using commercial level screens, a digital signage player and a CRM software.

Digital signage players are devices that display your content on the screen. It is a requirement for the display menu board to display content. The usual range can go from $200 to as high as $1200.

Now we are moving to a more practical aspect of how to make a digital menu board. So, where do you start creating an impeccable digital menu board? We’ve listed down the best and free tools with ready made templates to use to create your digital menu board.

Canva will help restaurateurs create different menus for your digital menu boards. It is not a tool specially made to design menus but it does the trick. Canva’s free version offers thousands of templates and allows users to filter them by style and theme.

In addition, it allows users to add their brand colors, logo, customize the sizes, change background image and illustrations, etc. It is a cost effective and very accessible tool for updating your menus yourself anytime.

MustHaveMenu is a hub of templates and images specifically for restaurants. Their free version allows you to get access to 5000+ templates, free photos and graphics.

The free plan can get you started with the basics in creating a digital menu. There are lots of restrictions though – no custom fonts, no high quality downloads, and a watermark for your downloads.

If you have an Apple device, this option might be great for you. Apple KeyNote is a graphic design tool that you can use to design menu boards for your restaurant. Similar to the other tools mentioned, Apple KeyNote also has templates that you can use to start your design.

The Apple Keynote offers unique animations, slide transitions, and also many unique features like turning handwriting into text. In addition, you can export your digital menu board designs as video files (Mp4 or GIF).

One of the best free tools you can use to create menu designs is Google Slides. It also has templates that you can use but it’s nowhere near what Canva or MustHaveMenus have.

Knowing how to create a digital restaurant menu still isn’t enough for success. In this section, let’s go over the do’s and don’ts when designing your digital menu board.

Something so simple as a font can make or break the design of your menu. Make sure you’re using easy to read fonts like Arial and Helvetica to create your menu. The potential problem of using fonts that are difficult to read are customers getting turned off. It is important that the first time they see your menu, they can easily catch on to what’s written there.

Always choose the colors that’s in line with the branding of your restaurant. Never use colors that’s totally different from the style guide. The main purpose is for customers to recall your brand when they see your menu. They won’t be able to do that if the colors on your menu are totally different from your brand colors.

Depending on the feel of your restaurant, it is always best to turn up the brightness on your digital menu board. Exceptions include beer pubs or speakeasies where it’s dark.

As we said above, photos are worth a thousand words. We recommend adding photos and/or videos to your digital menu board to entice customers. Just remember to not clutter your menu.

A good strategy is to test which designs work the best. Send out your content to your stores every 2 weeks and see the results. Do similar testing to see whether a photo on the menu or video does better.

Menu design best practices call for less items to be placed on it. Even if you have more than 50 items on your menu, it is best to limit these to your best sellers when designing your digital menu board. Customers will tend to decide quicker and have faster turnover in your restaurant.

So you already know how to make digital restaurant menu and partnered up with a service to coordinate the whole process. Choosing the right placement of your digital menu boards is the next step and certainly has an impact on your sales. Good places to put digital menu boards are by your order counter, the waiting area, and the dispatch area. This will help your customers decide easily what to order.

If you have a big space, an additional digital menu board at the dining area is highly recommended. This makes sure that everyone can see it without moving too much.

It is also important that you choose the right size for your digital menu board. The right size depends on factors such as dining area space, ordering area space, and the items on your menu. To go along with the size of the digital menu board is the orientation. Restaurants use landscape to put their entire menu while portrait is being used for promotions and new offerings.

The duty of updating a restaurant’s digital menu board lies on its restaurant manager. The manager is the one who’s fully aware of the updated prices, new items, new offers, and more. It is the prerogative of the manager if more people are to be trained to update the digital menu.

In addition to the manager, a restaurant should also have either an in-house or third party graphic designer to create the content on the digital menu board.

Despite the numerous benefits of having a digital menu board, there are still potential issues that need to be taken care of. For example, your digital menu board can suffer from screen damage or failure. It is important that the restaurant manager is in contact with third party service providers who can fix these issues.

Setting up a digital menu board in your restaurant is a quick and cost effective solution for restaurateurs to improve their operations and sales. It has become a regular trend in the food industry and soon, most restaurants will look into how to create a digital menu board. Make sure you read all the steps and tips above on all things related to digital menu boards.

Graphic design skills? Costly digital menu board software? Extensive technical experience? Yeah, these days you don’t need any of those things to create a digital menu board you can be proud of.

Ditching your traditional print menus for a digital menu doesn’t just give your restaurant an instant facelift, it also makes your menu infinitely easier to manage. Without the burden of having to reprint paper menus every time you make a change, you have an easier time experimenting with offers, different menu designs, upsells, or even changes in pricing.

In this guide, we walk you through the basics of what you need to know to easily create, display, and manage your digital menu board. You might want to bookmark this one for future reference.